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"It makes me laugh reading Powell's words. The only thing I would have changed so far, would have been to totally flatten Tikrit and Fallujah a la Dresden/Berlin in WW2. I would have than held them up as examples to Ramadi, etc."

So you are agreeing with my position that more overwhelming force should have been used, because that is the only thing I've suggested on this thread, and that seems to be the point of Powell's comments. But then we would have heard Naptowne's et al., complaining that we aren't winning the hearts and minds of the to be insurgents...blah, blah, blah...so forth and so on.

Another straw man. So you don't know me at all and suggest that I hold an opinion exactly opposite to the ones I expressed on this thread. I actually am not concerned with the hearts and minds of the Iraqis. I am concerned with achieving victory. One of the successes of this war have been what I consider relatively low casualties, but the most significant measure success will be when we are able to pacify the entire country. Hearts and minds was something made up by pencil-pushing, bureaucrats at the Pentagon, and it became a catch phrase of the MSM that you claim to despise along with shock and awe and a bunch of other idiotic terms that I find repulsive.

Powell is NOT great. That is my point.

Bombing the heck out of Fallujah and Tikrit is not overwhelming force. It's just how I, a nonmilitary person, whose mother was in Berlin in 1945 would have done it. Personally, I don't give a hoot about civilian casualties. I care only about our Troops and minimizing losses. Would other tactics proved better, who knows. I don't claim to know.

To date with all the whining about tactics and casualties (although very very tragic) are nothing compared to the mistakes we made in prior wars and what we suffered through in prior wars. Yet, all the whining and second guessing -- it is nauseating and does not help our side win the WOT any faster. As far as I can tell we are doing pretty well in Iraq. Everyday Islamists and Dead-enders blow something up but that is about it. They have lost every battle fought against US Troops, so now they hide and terrorize the Iraqis. The economy is improving, markets are full, increased electric generation cannot keep up with the demand, children are getting better health care, schools are available to all and the Iraqis are forming their own government. In ten years or so, if all goes well, Iraq will be the Mid East model - the shining light on the hill.

That's my opinion and I'm sticking to it. ;)